Milton Financials: Clearwire Corp hoping to raise up to $5 billion from spectrum auction.

Oct. 13, 2010 - PRLog -- High-speed wireless carrier Clearwire Corp. has attracted the attention of some heavy hitters in the telecoms and cable sectors for the upcoming wireless spectrum auction through which people with a direct knowledge of the sale say the firm hopes to raise between $2.5 billion and $5 billion.

According to sources known to Milton Financials, with the bidding managed by Deutsche Bank AG already in the second round, AT&T Inc, Verizon Wireless, Deutsche Telekom AG, Time Warner and Sprint Nextel Corp.,  Clearwire’s majority shareholder, are all potential buyers.

Clearwire recently announced that it was seeking additional funding for further expansion and said it had had preliminary talks with potential investors including deutsche Telekom’s mobile-phone arm, T-Mobile USA Inc.

An analyst at UBS AG in New York told sources known to Milton Financials that Clearwire will require around $2 billion by the fourth quarter to fund its network construction in early 2011.

“There are big ramifications from this from a funding standpoint,” said the UBS AG analyst. “If they get $5 billion, they could fund the business without raising any extra capital.”

The Washington based firm sells high-speed wireless service under its own brand name as well as through partners in over 50 markets. Clearwire is selling up to 40 megahertz of spectrum market, which is only a small slice of its overall wireless capacity, sources wishing to remain anonymous said.

Other shareholders in Clearwire include Google Inc., Time Warner Cable and Comcast Corp., Milton financials research showed.

# # #

Milton Financials is a dedicated, independent broker providing the market insight and investment advice that corporate, institutional and private clients trust.